Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week challenge this week is Things With Wings.

Yesterday a friend and I visited Christkindlmarkt in Chicago – an annual German market that sets up for the holiday season at the Daley Plaza. Someone must have been generous with bird seed to attract this plethora of pigeons!

Then today it was warm enough to walk outside and while walking a park district track, I came across this lone bird – a killdeer, someone informed me. I wondered if he/she felt cold.

There are more exotic birds in Tanzania, such as the ubiquitous maribou stork,

a colorful tiny bird whose name I don’t know,

and this well-camouflaged pair in an acacia tree.

Since it’s almost Christmas, I thought of this Native American nativity scene that we saw at Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson three years ago. This is a very unique-looking angel!

Thinking of warmer days, I remembered all the monarch butterflies I saw this summer, such as this one I spotted in someone’s front garden. I was able to get quite close and take several photos.

I also visited the butterfly garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden in July.


This moth has a large spot on its wing that looks like an eye to ward off predators.

This moth was perched on a screen at my house.